speakers
Art program
Song of Land and Sea
Maa ja mere laul (Song of Land and Sea) is a composition by Märt Matis Lill, commissioned and initiated by Ensemble U. The starting point for the composition was the environment chosen by the composer: the northernmost point of mainland Estonia called cape Purekkari, in Lahemaa National Park near Viinistu, which will be accessible to the audience via VR. So, the source of the music is that same landscape with the cape on the edge of land and sea, boulders and rocks of varying sizes, reeds rustling in the wind and the transverse waves hitting the tip of the cape.
Ensemble U: is currently the most active and renowned contemporary music ensemble in Estonia. It has gained recognition for its ability to perform even the most demanding works without conductor, openness for bold experimental ideas and sensitivity for sound. Next to Estonia U: has performed in important international festivals like Time of Music (Viitasaari, Finland), GAIDA (Vilnius, Lithuania), Sounds New (Canterbury, UK), Nordic Music Days (Helsinki, Finland), Nuova Consonanza (Rome, Italy), Third Practice (Richmond, USA) , Biennale di Musica Venezia (Italy), Virtuosi of XXI Century (Recife, Brasil), Dark Music Days (Iceland).
U: performs the masterworks of modern composers as well as experimental compositions. One distinct field for U: is to delve into improvisational works and perform pieces that require the rendering of non-traditional notation. The repertoire includes authors from Estonia and abroad and the ensemble values the opportunity to continuously commission new music to be written for them. Among others, Toivo Tulev, Mari Vihmand, Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes, Märt-Matis Lill, Tauno Aints, Helena Tulve, Ülo Krigul, Andrus Kallastu, Andres Lõo (Estonia), Roméo Monteiro and Gérard Pape (France), Antti Auvinen and Kimmo Kuitunen (Finland), Arash Yazdani (Iran), Benjamin Broening, Brian Christian Scott Miller, Heather Stebbins, Christopher Chandler (USA) and Eugen Birman (Estonia/USA), Fausto Sebastiani (Italy) have composed for U:.
